Back to ideas
Making More Money
Part B - Stories and Examples
Part A Booklet Text | Part C - Resources
Paul
Bullen
July 1998
The Stories are grouped under the Chapter in which they first appeared.
Contents
1. What do we know?
Community
Centre 95% Self-Funded
North Sydney Markets
2. Funding
Sources
of Income
Habitat Grant
3. Tendering
10 Questions to Ask before you sign the contract
4. Enterprises & Businesses
Enterprising Tips
5. Sponsorship
Marriage
6. Sponsorship
Fundraising
Dinner Dance
Remember the Guide Dogs in your will
7. Taxation
Country Fair Major Tourist Attraction
8. What are you ready for?
We need funds
1. What do we know
Community Centre 95% Self funded
The Byron Bay Community Centre has spent two years planning for a new Community Centre. The existing building has served the town of Byron Bay well for nearly 100 years, it has done its job and now needs replacing.
The Byron Community Centre and the land it sits upon is 100% owned by the people of Byron Shire. It is managed by an incorporated association of community representatives who hold the building in trust for the community.
The Centre is an information and referral service. It is 95% self funded. Income is generated through the management of the Byron Community Markets, office services, and hall and room rentals to a wide range of community groups at afford- able rates.
Local Newspaper, Byron Bay Community Centre
North Sydney Markets
The Ad
For your Christmas shopping this year avoid the stress and bustle of the big shopping centres and take yourself along to the North Sydney Markets. Among the 200 stalls you'll find the most interesting of gifts to be had anywhere on the North Shore...All this and the added bonus of the lovely parkland setting where you can buy a great lunch for under $5 and relax while you listen to live music.
Local Paper North Sydney Leisure Centre
Behind the Scenes
There was concern in 1995 with attendance by shoppers dropping. Trends observed to be instrumental in this were a certain staleness in the variety of stalls and their goods, plus the growth of other weekend markets around Sydney. Significant funds were allocated to reinvigorate the market. Display ads were placed in local papers and entertainment hired, also temporary lighting was purchased for the indoor venue. Lack of variety was overcome to an extent by the need to introduce public liability insurance. Many of the old stallholders left, freeing up for new stallholders. The market continues to provide a community focus for the area thanks to the goodwill of the staff, Management Committee and parents who volunteer to help each month.
Annual Report North Sydney Leisure Centre
2. Funding
Sources of Income
The Financial Statements presented here are for the Springwood Neighbourhood Centre Co-operative Limited. This means that they represent all Co-operative activities, and present a complete picture of the Co-operative's financial position....
Income for the year totalled $467,591.57. Government funding accounted for 67.78% of this income.
The other main sources of income were child care fees, donations towards the cost of Centre based service provision such as room space, photocopying, Drop-in Coffee Lounge, and fundraising activities as follows: raffles, regular sausage sizzles, garage sale, gala day/car display, chocolate and preserve sales, Ivy Market catering, and an over-night bus trip to Canberra.
Annual Report, Springwood Neighbourhood Centre
Habitat Grant
Belmont: A $5000 grant will be used to further develop the Belmont Neighbourhood Centre's ongoing Habitat in Harmony project.
The Lake Macquarie Catchment Management Committee allocated the grant.
The money will be used to develop special watercourse management strategies for the Centre's permaculture garden that it has been developing over the past 12 months.
The Neighbourhood Centre's' Habitat in Harmony project encompasses a self-sufficient community garden.
Community members benefit from the program by working in the garden which is also used extensively as an educational tool for the community.
Local Newspaper, Belmont Neighbourhood Centre
3. Tendering
10 Questions to Ask before you sign the contract
1. Is the project in line with our aims? Is this what we want to do? Are we just doing it for the money? Is it worth it?
2. What could it cost us? What were the grey areas in the budget? What is the worst case financial scenario?
3. How else could it affect us? What are the management implications of taking this on? Will it distract us from our core business?
4. Will it limit us? Are there strings - will it stop us from lobbying, or put some people off
5. Are our rights as clear as our responsibilities? Is the purchasing Department making promises as well as us?
6. What are the risks? What could go wrong? How would problems be dealt with? Will it be fair?
7. Do we have room to move? What contingencies are built into the budget? What if things change or we've made a mistake? Does the purchaser share the risks?
8. How will it be evaluated? Can we meet our own expectations about service quality? Will we be judged on numbers only - or compared against others who work that way?
9. What will happen when the contract ends? What financial obligations will we be left with? What moral obligations will we have to service users? Can we cope?
10. At what point do we say No? How dependant are we on this contract? What alternatives do we have? At what point do we walk away?
Tendering Handbook, publisched by SACOSS adapted from 'Coping with Contracting', published by WACOSS
4. Enterprise and Business
Enterprising Tips
Tip 1 - Dream
Wollongong SkillShare (Case study ...) had a dream about being able to provide employment and work experience for people completing SkillShare's catering courses. A Trifle Different is a multicultural catering business. It began operating from the back of a hotel in 1989 with a $15,000 turnover. It won a major contract with BHP and had a turnover of $236,000 in 1994. Dreams can become realities.
Tip 6 - Build commitment
A key reason why Revolve (Case Study 6) has survived and grown is the commitment of a core group of people:
Revolve could never have got to its present position without the significant commitment of a core group of people. This commitment has carried us through the early times of technical bankruptcy through to our current position where all planning for the future is done out of hours on a voluntary basis. Continually developing a future vision has been important to keeping the dynamism of the company going.
Tip 27 - Learn from your mistakes
AQA bought Team Tops, a clothing manufacturing business. It was not related to their social goals or core business. It was wound up after significant losses. AQA Team Tops (Case Study 8 ) notes:
The experience with Team Tops has absolutely changed people's attitude to business enterprises within AQA. AQA now has the view it would never be involved in another business activity such as Team Tops again, ie, a non core business activity where they had to outlay a significant amount of dollars. We would not put a large chunk of our money up again.
Nonprofits in Business, Paul Bullen et al
Exporting Clothes Lines
One of the beaut things which has happened recently came out of having a Special Migrant Placement Officer in the Neighbourhood Centre. As a result, a lot of migrants came here looking for work who had expertise in import-export. One of them asked me where she could buy a container- load of rotary clothes lines for her "client" in Thailand! They don't have anything like that there.
That started us off with finding out how we can export overseas. But most people who export have got money, they're not little Community Centres. We went to Austrade and found we had to pay thousands of dollars for information. So we went to our Local Member, and now Community Centres can have the information which enables people to start up their own businesses.
What we did then was hunt around and found that training in import-export costs about $15,000. So we got someone with expertise in customs to donate some of their time and set up our own courses. We've got some really good success stories - plastic piping to Indonesia was one. Our people want to sell Australian products, usually to Asia, or sometimes Europe.
We've had our fights with Departments, but it's been very rewarding. We're having a graduation ceremony on Monday for the four courses we've had here.
We put in for funding from DEET and got funding for three years from OLMA, the Office of Labour Market Adjustment. Now that the training has got established, they've found their own premises, although they're still under our auspice.
Burwood Community Welfare Services
5. Sponsorship
Marriage
An interesting statistic is that the average sponsorship lasts about the same length of time as the average Australian marriage - five years. Why? Because sponsorships are based on human relationships. The first thing that occurs is:
The attraction
Initially one party is attracted to the other. Either the potential sponsor is attracted to the benefits an organisation has to offer, or the organisation is attracted to the sponsor's money and image.
The approach
This phase is not dissimilar to the human relationship, where one party has to make the bold move of introducing themselves to the other party.
Courting
Following a successful approach the parties get to know each other and the information exchange begins.
Engagement
The question is asked, and if the response is yes, then there is verbal agreement to enter into a 'marriage'. This is where the date is set, the contracts are drawn up and the handshake has occurred.
Marriage
The 'marriage' takes place at the signing of the contract and for it to work the relationship has to be 'win win' - the old saying 'it takes two to tango' stands up with sponsorships.
Divorce
Sadly marriages are breaking down more regularly and probably for many of the same reasons that sponsorship relationships break down. The sponsorship breakdown or divorce can occur for a multitude of reasons, but the majority are due to either a breakdown in commination between the parties or a change of people or objectives by either side.
Edward Geldard of the Sponsorship Unit of Victoria to a recent Canberra Arts Marketing seminar
6. Fundraising
Fundraising via the Internet.
Fundraising via the Internet is in its infancy. Here are two examples provided by the Nonprofnet.
The Australian Red Cross include information about how to donate and why donations are needed.. It refers donors to a toll free number and local branches.
Innovative fundraising special event with plenty of novelty and appeal. A computer firm and a bank agreed to pay 10 cents to the charity for every person who makes a visit to the electronic North Pole. You can write and receive e-mail from Santa, listen to carols and decorate a Christmas tree.
University of Queensland, Nonprofnet
Fundraising Dinner Dance
The Supporters of the Manly Neighbourhood Centre Fundraising Committee held a fundraising dinner/dance at the Manly Golf Club in March of this year. The evening was a great success with lots of dancing and buying on the chocolate wheel, as well as the raffle of a magnificent painting donated and painted by Ron Davis. We raised $6,152 made up of $4,164 from the sale of raffle tickets and the chocolate wheel, and the balance from dinner tickets.
It was an extremely successful evening both from a financial point of view as well as lots of fun. We look forward to our Art Show in September 1996. not only for its fundraising ability but because we hope to bring the Manly Neighbourhood Centre to the attention of more people in the community.
Annual Report, Manly Neighbourhood Centre Inc
Remember the Guide Dogs in your will
After you have carefully considered family and friends in your will, a bequest to your favourite charity will continue to help others for many years and ensure that you are well remembered.
Guide Dogs relies on the constant help of our supporters, and people who make a bequest to the Guide Dog Association in their will are happy and secure in the knowledge that their money will help others for years to come. However, many people are reluctant to make wills or are confused about how to go about it, so we asked a solicitor to tell us about the benefits of making wills and bequests.....
Types of bequests
Bequests can be made in many ways. You may leave a specific bequest such as land, shares, money or a motor vehicle to a beneficiary, or you may prefer to have your Executor sell some or all of your assets and then divide up the proceeds, either in proportions or by giving specific sums of money.
A most beneficial way to make a bequest to a charity is to leave the balance (residue) of your Estate to that charity, after funeral and Estate administration costs and legacies to family and dependents have been paid. Remember, it is of vital importance that you make sure all of your Estate is left to your beneficiaries, because otherwise the left over amount will be treated as though there was no will. You should also be aware that there are now no death (or probate) duties payable from your Estate. Should you choose to help the Guide Dogs by leaving us something in you will, remember to use our full legal name - Guide Dog Association of New South Wales and A.C.T. Please give one of the forms of bequest below, to your solicitor when having your will prepared or amended...
7. Taxation
Country Fair Major Tourist Attraction
From humble beginnings, the Berry Country Fair has grown to become one of Shoalhaven's major tourist attractions, and a highly successful, regular fundraising event to aid local charities.
Originally. the Berry Country Fair was the idea of a group of friends, namely Claudia and Peter Makula and Chris MacLachlan. These friends enjoyed going to a Fair out of town but could see the need for people from Berry to have a local outlet to sell their goods from, as the Berry Bizarre was very small at that stage. It took a tremendous amount of organising to get it from an 'idea' to a 'reality'. However, lots of people from the town were supportive and the first Berry Country Fair was held in Apex Park on Sunday, September 2, 1984 with 15 stallholders paying $4.50 each for their stalls.
Entertainment was provided on the day by locals Nick Lyon and Mark Bugden, the Berry Silver Band and the ever faithful 'Lobo the Clown' also entertained young and old alike....
Eventually the fair became so successful it changed venues to the Berry Showground in 1991.
Since then stall numbers have increased to 200 with stallholders paying $20 for a stall. "Lobo the Clown' is still entertaining our patrons and it is endeavoured to have music at each Fair.
Now in its 11th year and reportedly the biggest Fair in the area. It attracts an estimated five to seven thousand people in the village on the first Sunday of the month.
The Berry Community Activities Centre employs a Fair Coordinator....Funds raised by the Community Centre go to local charities in the area.
Local Newspaper 1995, Berry Community Activities Centre
8. What are you ready for?
We Need Funds
We need funds. They are increasingly difficult to raise.
The Community Centre acknowledges the funding contributions from the Department of Community Services (CSGP), and the Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health(OOSH), Without these financial contributions the Centre would not operate.
We also acknowledge the contribution made by Hawkesbury City Council in the provision of our premises....
Once again it is easy to see that we are only just managing to keep our heads above the water. We do not have any reserves, other than $1500 for major maintenance and/or Long Service Leave Account.
It has become increasingly difficult to raise funds in the Community. All Centre users are busy raising funds to keep their own groups going. WE NEED A MAJOR FUND RAISER, AND A FUND RAISING SUB COMMITTEE.
We have been able to increase rental income for 1997 as we now have a new playgroup, a Dance School and Guides have also joined us. This should raise about $2240 extra. We have lost some income as the Aerobics Program has not been as well attended and we make allowances in rental to maintain the service at the Centre.....
Treasurers Report, Glossodia Community Centre
Acknowledgements
Written by Paul Bullen
Management Alternatives Pty Ltd ACN 050 334 435
02 9665 7737
Printed booklet simultaneously
published by
Local Community Services Association (LCSA)
66 Albion St Surry Hills NSW 2010
Telephone 02 9211 3644 NSW freecall 1800 645 545 Email lcsa@pnc.com.au
Fax 02 9281 0386 © Copyright 1998
This publication may be freely copied by Neighbourhood and Community Centres in NSW for their use. All others wishing to copy any part should seek permission from LCSA.
Many thanks to the
Centres who contributed to the stories and information in the booklet
and all those who have been quoted.